


Ashes

by hellomiho



Category: Bloodbound (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-25
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-09-26 02:50:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20382466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellomiho/pseuds/hellomiho
Summary: Since the First Vampire’s rise and fall 500 years ago, Kamilah Sayeed has moved into legend, a woman drenched in the blood of thousands.Rosella has made it her mission to find out why.





	1. Chapter 1

Rosella came to, feeling a dull, throbbing ache in the back of her head, and made to rub it when she found her hands cuffed to the chair. The memories flooded back into her mind at the feel of the cold iron and she quickly swivelled her head around to try to gain insight into where she was being held. 

She was in an expansive chamber with no exit in sight, broken shards of glass littering the sides of the room. The room was like the ruins of a museum, empty exhibits everywhere where artefacts must once have been. This must have been where the Order of Dawn had kept the articles, _trophies _of their conquests and she couldn’t help but hiss in disgust.

And then Rosella heard the sound of doors being pushed open somewhere behind her and the clicking of heels against the marble floor.

Her heart sped erratically as she smelled the calming scent of lavender and Rosella finally laid eyes upon her captor.

Kamilah Sayeed.

The living legend was standing right in front of her, dressed in an impeccably tailored pantsuit that outlined every inch of her curves. In the light, her suit looked as if it were drenched in blood, and Rosella internally shuddered at the terrifyingly beautiful image. She was every bit the striking figure of legend and more.

Every newly Turned vampire learned about this woman as she was a vital part of vampire history and present, and was responsible for thousands of deaths. If the First Vampire had been a goddess, she was a Queen, who was perhaps even more feared than the former now that the First Vampire was long dead.

Her features were timeless, set in an immovable and beautiful face, and yet there was something more to her, something that hinted at the two thousand and five hundred years of life she had experienced.

But what surprised Rosella most was the lucid, brown depth of the woman’s eyes. They weren’t the bright red of vampires caught in the throes of bloodlust and they contained no hint of madness like the myths said. No, these were the eyes of a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

She noticed the daggers sheathed at the vampire’s hip and knew instantly that this was the pair of infamous daggers that had claimed the lives of countless lives. It was deceptively simple with only the barest of ornamentation on their pommels.

Nobody except the leader of her clan, who had once been a member of Clan Sayeed, knew how these daggers looked because the people who laid eyes on them did not last long enough to tell others. Seeing them was a death sentence but Rosella felt a surge of fearful triumph; she was here with Kamilah Sayeed (although there was no telling how much longer she’d be here alive).

Being captured by the legend herself had never been the plan, but now that she was in this position, Rosella realised this was the best chance she had of finding out the truth directly from the source.

She just needed to keep the world’s oldest living and most dangerous vampire interested enough in her to not kill her, at least until she was able to hear the truth. No big deal, she could do that… She hoped.

Rosella knew she’d have to speak first in order to pique the woman’s interest but the words spilled out of her naturally, “I don’t understand.”

The vampire stared at her silently, offering no signs that she had heard or was willing to entertain her, but Rosella continued anyway, unable to stop the words that had started flowing, the questions that had built up inside her ever since she had been Turned and learned of this woman.

“You’re Kamilah Sayeed. Everyone respected you, everyone knew how _powerful _you were, but you used that power in order to maintain peace. You committed… _devastating _atrocities against humans with Gaius but it seemed like you were at least atoning for them. You protected vampires and humans alike from the wrath of Gaius and then the First Vampire when she arose again and you helped defeat both of them. You single-handedly destroyed the Order of the Dawn… So why did you turn against us? Why do you hunt us? Are you so bloodthirsty that you need to resort to killing your own brethren?! Haven’t you spilled enough blood?!”

Rosella had tried to keep her emotions restrained; she knew throwing frenzied accusations at the woman would only serve to alienate her, which was the very opposite of what she wanted. But she couldn’t do it. Her voice rose in intensity with each word until she was feverishly yelling the last question at the woman, tears rolling down her cheeks. The faces of all the friends and family she had lost appeared in her mind like a never-ending movie, causing her heart to break all over again but she kept her eyes open and fixed on the unmoving woman.

There had been a flicker of amusement on Kamilah’s face at the beginning but her face had quickly smoothed over again. Kamilah easily met Rosella’s watery and yet determined gaze before frowning and looking away as if she had found something she didn’t like in Rosella’s eyes.

“Do you know who was with me the night the First Vampire rose again?”

The sudden question startled Rosella but she answered instinctively, listing off the names that had been taught to her and every other newly Turned vampire since the Great Battle, ““Adrian Raines, head of Clan Raines, Jax Matsuo, head of clan Matsuo, formerly the Clanless, and Lily Spencer, second in command of Clan Matsuo.”

A dark flash came over Kamilah’s face before she gave a bitter laugh.

“Nobody ever mentions her. She was the one person tying everything together and yet, it’s like she never existed.”

Rosella furrowed her brows in confusion; she knew she hadn’t missed anyone from her lessons, but she was wary of asking, not wanting to test Kamilah’s patience any more than she already had.

“Her name was Eden,” Kamilah said, her voice growing somehow soft, each syllable said with tender affection.

“She was the most remarkable person I’d met.”

* * *

_The fight hadn’t been going well. They had been too cornered, too outnumbered, too powerless against the First Son. Even if he hadn’t sustained himself with blood for thousands of years, he had the undiluted blood of the First flowing through him, and with his limitless forces of trained killers, there was no way they could leave with their lives intact._

_Xenocrates hadn’t even made use of his skills yet; in an arrogant and yet not unfounded show of power, he stood in the centre of the fighting, simply watching as his soldiers were replaced as quickly as they were killed._

_Not even Adrian or Kamilah could keep this up infinitely._

_With the Order’s weapons, there was no choice but to keep the fighting as close in proximity to the soldiers as possible. The three of them moved effortlessly through the crowds, their weapons making quick work of the humans even as their actions gradually slowed._

_Eden was running around the chamber, knocking out soldiers with one of the Order’s weapons. Kamilah spared a split second to look towards Eden and found her using her weapon to knock down the arm of a soldier who had gotten too close to her. She felt a fierce sense of pride and relief, recognising Eden’s move as one she had taught her._

_But this momentary lapse in focus cost Kamilah and she felt the tip of a crossbow drag down her forearm, opening an angry gash. The Egyptian woman let out a snarl, killing the attacker in a matter of seconds before stepping over the dead bodies she had accrued around her to attack the next soldier._

_She could feel her body knitting itself back together but it was too slow, it made her too slow. _

_A UV bomb clipped her side and Kamilah faltered in her bloody stride. A quick scan of the chamber showed that Adrian and Jax were in similar states, their wounds too accumulated. And Eden. Kamilah locked eyes with Eden, seeing her own desperation mirrored._

_Could this truly be it? Would this be where they met their end, unable to stop Gaius or Xenocrates?_

_She saw Eden’s face harden with resolve and Kamilah felt a terror greater than any she had felt during the night when Eden darted to the Tree. She made to go after her, noticing in her peripheral vision that Xenocrates was following suit, also having seen where she was headed._

_“No, don’t-”_

_The warning died in her throat as Eden threw herself at the Tree, biting it with all her might, and a blinding light suddenly illuminated the room._

_“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Xenocrates howled in fury._

_The fighting momentarily halted, vampires and soldiers alike turned towards the figure who stepped out of the vortex of light._

_“It’s been so long, my fallen prince.”_

_The body of the woman who spoke was at once Eden and yet not. Oppressing amounts of power rolled off her in waves and dripped from her unearthly voice. With a mere raise of her hand, blazing bolts of fire soared in the air before finding their mark in the chests of hundreds of soldiers, who promptly fell to the ground._

_But her eyes, her blood-red eyes, were fixed solely on the cowering figure of Xenocrates, promising revenge on the one who had dared to imprison her. There were no pithy remarks, no clever insults thrown. Instead, in one last valiant attempt, he threw himself at her with a wordless cry._

_Eden, no, Rheya thrust her hand into his chest and pulled it out, holding a throbbing heart. He fell to the ground in an unceremonious heap, a gaping hole in his chest through which large globules of fat and other organs could be seen glistening underneath the torn tatters of skin._

_Rheya stared impassively at the still-beating source of life before baring her fangless mouth and biting into it in one feral motion. Blood sputtered out of the flailing organ but she continued to steadily chew until its movements stopped and the heart fell apart into ashes._

_It was only then that she turned towards the sole living survivors in the room, all of whom had remained frozen in horror at the unfolding scene._

_“My children, you have nothing to fear from me,” she raised her arms as if to embrace them lovingly, but Xenocrate’s blood had painted deep rivulets of crimson down her chin and arms._

_When the looks of distrust and fear did not disappear from their faces and they instead readied their weary bodies to attack, she looked disappointingly at the three of them._

_“I-”_

_Her face suddenly twisted into a terrible grimace and she lurched forward, only just able to maintain her balance. As the three watched her in confusion, she hissed angrily to herself, “Do not fight the blood. Embrace it.”_

_And then whatever internal struggle she had been undergoing seemed to end and Rheya spared them not a single glance as she disappeared out of the chambers._

* * *

Kamilah abruptly stopped, walking out of the room and leaving Rosella alone to think about this woman who had never once come up in her lessons.

Eden, the mortal Bloodkeeper who had, in an act of foolish bravery, become possessed by the First Vampire.

Kamilah talked about her as if she were speaking of a lover and she had not been quick enough in her exit for Rosella to not notice the yearnful look on her face.

Rosella knew the First Vampire was long dead, killed in the Great Battle, but what had happened to Eden in the process?

She had a feeling that the answer to this question would explain Kamilah’s steep descent. 


	2. Chapter 2

An indeterminable amount of time had passed since Rosella’s capture and she found herself longing for Kamilah’s return. Her mind was going crazy with the countless possibilities of what might have happened and her throat was aching with thirst. How long had it been since she’d fed? Had Kamilah forgotten about her? 

When at last she heard the sounds of the opening doors, her head snapped up before Rosella tried to contain her eagerness. 

Kamilah stepped in, looking as perfect as she had that first time, dressed in that same blood-red suit but for once, Rosella’s attention wasn’t on her. It was on the blood pack in her hand.

Her head followed the movement of the bag as the woman walked near her, her fangs already out in anticipation. She felt the unlocking of one cuff and immediately, she snatched the blood bag with her free hand and began greedily sucking it down.

The bag now empty, Rosella licked the side of her lip where a small amount of blood was before gratefully saying, “Thank you.”

Kamilah, who had been unfazed at her nearly feral display of feeding, seemed surprised at the words of thanks before nodding once. Noticing how the vampire didn’t seem to be in any hurry to re-cuff her free hand, Rosella wondered if perhaps Kamilah knew that she wouldn’t run away even if she was set free (Or maybe it was because Kamilah could kill her in a second if Rosella showed even the slightest sign of wanting to escape). 

A silence had fallen over the room and Rosella felt the need to fill it with anything, to get Kamilah talking before she decided she was in the mood to kill her today.

“So, E-,” Rosella quickly changed direction when she noticed Kamilah’s eyes flashing dangerously at the first syllable, “Rheya. Once Rheya had control over a body, what happened?”

There was still so much that had happened between the First Vampire’s resurrection and the beginning of Kamilah’s ruthless campaign that Rosella wanted, no needed to know. 

It was silent for so long that Rosella began to lose hope. This was the day Kamilah finally grew tired of her and killed her.

Uneasy, Rosella began to fidget, accidentally letting her wrist come in contact with the rings of UV light emitted by the cuffs. The pain that flared up was instantaneous, so intense that she almost missed the soft words Kamilah began to speak.

* * *

_Rheya had killed all of the Order of Dawn soldiers down in the chamber before running away, leaving the massive headquarters to the four of them. They sat in one of the many debriefing offices and Kamilah wondered how many vampires must have been killed by plans made in this very room. _

_The first to break the tension hanging over the room, Lily voiced a similar thought to which Jax darkly muttered, “Too bad most of the soldiers are scattered throughout Europe. Rheya could have killed all of them.”_

_Adrian looked up at this and sharply rebuked, “Jax.”_

_“What?” Jax said, throwing his hands angrily up in the air, “We’re all thinking it. The First Vampire’s walking again, she might as well destroy the Order of Dawn while she’s at it. Not that we’ll live to see the benefits of that, but if she’s going to kill us, she better kill those bastards too.”_

_Kamilah was tired. As one of the oldest vampires in the world, she knew that everyone would be looking to her for leadership in these tumultuous times. She had over two thousand years of experience, and yet it never seemed to get easier, it was never not her. Kamilah felt the oppressive burden of leadership weigh down her shoulders and she closed her eyes briefly, her only sign of weakness, before she snapped to attention. _

_“We need to operate with the assumption that Rheya and Gaius are going to reunite and return,” she remarked and Lily, already looking pale, swore before sinking down in her chair._

_“Kamilah’s right. We need to gather as many vampires as we can. Thanks to Vlad, Rheya has no shortage of vampires willing to join her cause,” Adrian smoothly picked up where Kamilah had left off even as Jax snorted._

_“As if she needs willing vampires. She can probably just force them.”_

_“Jax!” They all turned to the source of the cry, surprised to see that it was Lily, uncharacteristically serious, “I get it. Everything sucks and I want nothing more than to hide in a bomb shelter and wait it out but we need to work on finding a way to beat them. Your Gloomy Gus act isn’t helping at all. Either offer some ideas or just shut up!”_

_Kamilah nodded approvingly, “I’ll reach out to all of my contacts. We can count on 300 vampires, maybe 400 if they can be convinced of their necessity.”_

_Adrian mused, “Not counting our overlapping connections, I think I can call in around a hundred. Jax?”_

_Jax gave a tired sigh, but he responded without any dark remarks, “If there’s anything I’ve learned, there’s a lot of Clanless still in hiding. I’d say around 1-200. Not including the Clanless who have already joined my clan.”_

_Lily added, “I’ll also have Fangbook display an announcement to every user. That’ll be able to get a lot of the younger vampires.” _

_Adrian eyed Kamilah carefully before he spoke, “There’s still the matter of Rheya.” _

_And here lay the crux of their situation, the problem that seemed to suck out all the oxygen in the room, the crisis they could avoid no longer._

_The First Vampire was walking again. In Eden’s body._

_The horror she had felt at that moment was greater than any she had felt in her life and Kamilah had been able to do nothing but dumbly watch as the woman she loved became but a shell for a legend. It felt like her heart had twisted itself into a tight knot and not relaxed since that very moment; how was it that each heartbreak she experienced was even more poignant than the last? _

_It seemed that when it came to Eden, Kamilah was capable of nothing but failure. She had failed to protect her from Vega, Gaius, Kavinsky, the Order, the list went on and on until her biggest failure yet. _

_Kamilah felt an urge to run out of the room and just chase after Eden, consequences be damned, but she pushed it down, pasting on an emotionless facade. _

_At her silence, Adrian continued delicately, “We all saw Eden drink from the Tree but it’s not clear what happened afterwards. Her eyes flashed red like a vampire but she didn’t have fangs. If I had to guess, I’d say Rheya’s possessed her and given Eden her abilities but Eden’s maintained her mortal body.”_

_They all remained silent after Adrian’s declaration, processing what this meant for Eden. Jax slammed the table in frustration as Lily frantically tapped her leg, her brow furrowed in worry. And then Adrian and Kamilah both looked at each other and said in unison, “Serafine.”_

_Kamilah nodded, “Serafine’s the only person who might know what happened and what to do.”_

_Lily perked up, her eyes wide behind the thick frames of her glasses, “Do you think she can maybe do her mind control thing like Jameson and kick Rheya out?” _

_“Perhaps,” she gave Lily. And seeing how Lily’s despondency completely disappeared, replaced with a fervent optimism, Kamilah envied her this. That she could be so filled with hope after one single word from Kamilah, that Lily trusted her unconditionally. There had only been one person able to pull her out from her feelings of numbness and shame, but she was far from her now._

_“But we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves. Serafine might not know anything about this. We should be prepared for the worst,” Adrian interjected carefully and winced, “As the **last **resort, if there’s nothing we can do, we need to behead Rheya.”_

_“What?!” Lily jumped up from her seat, outraged, “So you’re just going to kill Eden?! Just like that?! What if she’s still in there?! You all saw how Rheya faltered for a second! Eden might still be in there fighting for her life! She never once gave up on **any of us**, but you’re not even going to give her a chance?!”_

_Jax avoided Lily’s glare of betrayal, “I agree with Adrian. We should still be on the same page if things turn for the worst. We can only kill Rheya using a weapon made out of the Tree, right?”_

_Adrian nodded and Lily looked desperately at Kamilah, in a fervent plea for help._

_And although her heart was screaming at her to stop all this talk of death, Kamilah could not in good conscience fight Adrian and Jax on this. If worst came to worst, Rheya and Eden had to be killed for the greater good of the world… Right?_

_Feeling as if she were personally signing Eden’s execution warrant, Kamilah finally spoke, “We need to be prepared. But Lily’s right. We have to be careful, Eden may still yet be in there.” _

_“We can’t give up on her. Not after all she’s done. We kill her when we can’t do anything else.”_

* * *

_Serafine still looked a bit worse for the wear, even though she had long changed out of the tattered remains of her dress from the night of the club massacre. But her spirit was wholly intact and she determinedly kissed everyone on their cheeks in greeting; imprisonment was no excuse for bad manners. _

_Greetings over, Serafine became grave, “I’ve read through the Book.”_

_Serafine had been told about Rheya’s possession of Eden and although she hadn’t heard of anything like it, she had volunteered to research the Book. Even in the short amount of time they’d known each other, Eden had made an impression on Serafine, and if there was anything she could do, she would do it. _

_“What did you find?” Adrian asked, and Kamilah let out the smallest of sighs, thankful he had asked first. She’d been fighting not to betray her impatience the entire morning although Serafine’s keen eyes already seemed to have picked up on her eagerness. If it had been any other time, Serafine would have poked fun at her old friend for finally having found a woman she truly cared for (no wonder Eden hadn’t seemed interested in Adrian and Jax). _

_As it was, Serafine focused back on the tome in her hands, “I found several instances of vampires taking control over weaker vampires they had Turned, which isn’t exactly like Eden’s case but similar.” _

_“And?” Lily asked, bouncing on her heels with excitement, “were they able to regain control of themselves?”_

_Serafine hesitated, “Well, in one case, they tried destroying the body of the maker and controller.”_

_“And?” Adrian prompted._

_“Both the maker and the controlled dissolved into ashes.”_

_“What happened in other cases?” Kamilah quickly asked, moving on from the unfruitful example._

_“The controlled person died in every single instance.“_

_A bleak silence fell over the five of them until Serafine spoke up again, “But these were all vampire vampire situations. It might be different with a Bloodkeeper. She has mental powers that these vampires most likely didn't’ have.”_

_Jax scoffed dismissively, “Yeah but we’re dealing with the First Vampire.”_

_And cynical though his words were, nobody could deny the truth in them. _

_Serafine wasn’t a particularly optimistic person but seeing just how broken and hopeless they all looked, she felt the need to speak, “You said Rheya faltered for a moment, right? That’s a good sign that Eden was even able to evoke a physical response. That means she’s still in there, she’s still fighting. If you can get me close enough to touch her, I may be able to help her.” _

_Kamilah nodded in thanks but Adrian still seemed unsatisfied._

_“If it doesn’t work…” he trailed off._

_Jax answered for all of them, “She dies.”_


	3. Chapter 3

She was half dying from thirst when Kamilah finally returned to visit her. 

Rosella had long since entered into a state of bloodlust, but with no humans, no source of blood anywhere near her, she’d remained in a continuous state of delirium, her eyes stained crimson. She jerked towards Kamilah’s approaching figure but there was no blood bag in her hand this time, and she slumped back into her chair. 

It was clear she would die today, by Kamilah’s hand or starvation, but there was no energy left in her to care.

Kamilah took in her state wordlessly before she finally opened her mouth.

* * *

_‘It was a blessing that vampires died so cleanly,’ Kamilah mused thoughtfully. They turned so quickly to ash without leaving behind any cumbersome bodies. She had no need to manoeuvre her way around piles of dead bodies; instead, she was free to move from one vampire to the next, leaving a swirl of ashes in her wake. _

_And yet, despite her ever-rising number of kills, the battle wasn’t going well._

_In the beginning, as their forces pitted against Rheya and Gaius’s combined forces, they had tried to corner Rheya, tried to give Serafine that window of opportunity to touch her body and help Eden. _

_Rheya hadn’t even needed to lift a hand before Serafine was blasted to the ground with a bolt of light, immediately disintegrated into ashes. _

_The death of a longtime friend, once lover, barely stung her now as the adrenaline pumped in her veins, honing her focus solely on killing whoever came in front of her and nothing else. The only good thing was that Kamilah had been able to kill Gaius, though she’d hardly had any time to savour the look of surprise on his face._

_As Kamilah continued to fight through the hordes of vampires, she finally cleared a path back to the center of the room, where Rheya looked on the savage onslaught with amusement. She showed no signs of worry or disturbance that her forces were rapidly being diminished or that the last of her Sons had been killed. Instead of helping her devoted followers, she simply stood and smirked, a sinister caricature of the expression that normally looked so captivating on Eden._

_As if she could sense Kamilah’s ruinous and determined advance towards her, Rheya turned to face Kamilah and spoke easily, _

_“He told me about you. And I saw the memories of this body. You’re quite the woman.”_

_Kamilah stayed silent as she killed her way into the large circle that Rheya stood in, an area that had somehow remained untainted by the fighting._

_“I see your eyes and they hunger for more.” _

_And then Rheya was suddenly right in front of Kamilah, Eden’s luminous brown eyes lit up with a fervent fire. _

_“Join me,” she whispered seductively, laying a soft hand on Kamilah’s cheek as their eyes locked together, “Join me and we will rule the world, making it a haven for all vampirekind. You’ve seen firsthand the filthy animals humans are. I am their rightful goddess.” _

_When Kamilah didn’t pull away from her, Rheya gave her a sly, satisfied smile. _

_“You could be with your precious mortal too,” she added, her finger drawing a tantalising path down her own collarbone and Kamilah silently traced the motion with her eyes, “Once we’ve completed our divine mission, I have no qualms letting her have her body back during the days. You’ll see that I can be quite generous.”_

_At this, the scarlet of Rheya’s eyes faded away, replaced by a warm, brown, and Eden was back in front of her. She seemed to need a moment to compose herself, stumbling backwards and Kamilah instinctively reached out her arm to balance her._

_The woman recoiled from her touch and Kamilah feared that Rheya had been playing her, that the colour change had just been a trick of the light, but then Eden looked up at her. Her face was consumed with terror but she was wholly and undeniably Eden. _

_“Kamilah?” she whispered and Kamilah made to move toward her, to support her, to hold her in her arms again, a rush of love pouring into her heart._

_But then Eden’s head fell to the ground and Kamilah found herself showered in a heavy spray of warm blood. _

_The cloying taste of blood filled her mouth but Kamilah couldn’t seem to breathe, could only stand frozen as Eden’s headless corpse followed suit and toppled over onto the ground. _

_There was no grand feeling, no inexplicable snap or shattering of something vital in her chest, but rather just an overwhelming sense of numbness that threatened to consume her. She didn’t bother clutching at Eden’s body; there was no surviving a blow such as that. _

_Blood continued to spurt out of her body, drenching the bottom of Kamilah’s pants, and she watched the neverending flow of blood expressionlessly. It seemed impossible that so small a body could contain so, **so **much blood._

_She didn’t stop looking until at last, the blood trickled to a stop and all that remained was a rapidly cooling body and a head, frozen in that fearful and yet still trusting expression. Even though she had seen every second of her death, it was almost difficult connecting the body to the lively woman Kamilah had known. _

_The woman who had changed so many things for her, the woman she had unconsciously been searching for all these years, the woman who had unconditionally accepted her and all of her past without a hint of fear or disgust, the woman who was more remarkable than any other being she’d met in her life._

_The woman she loved. _

_Kamilah finally raised her head, meeting Adrian’s eyes as he stood defeatedly over the corpse. There was a deep pain in his eyes but no sign of regret, and she instead focused on the knife at his side, the knife that was still dripping with the blood of the Tree and Eden. _

_He began to speak but then there was a terrible, heart-wrenching scream that pierced throughout the chambers, drowning out all other sounds. _

_Then suddenly, it was too quiet and Kamilah found herself standing over a pile of ashes that had once been like a brother to her. His ashes coating her hands, tears burning down her cheeks, she slowly turned to the remaining two in the room. _

_Jax had his sword drawn out against her and he stared warily at her, ready to move at the slightest provocation. When Kamilah didn’t do anything, Jax relaxed the grip on his weapon, only to suddenly lunge at her._

_“NO JAX, DON’T!” Lily shouted but it was too late and Kamilah pounced on him, his ashes mixing with the still-wet blood all over her. _

_“Wait, please Kamilah! I loved her too, she was my best friend. But you can’t do this. You can’t just kill everyone because it hurts to have lost her” Lily desperately pleaded, her arms held up nonthreateningly as she slowly advanced towards her, “Eden wouldn’t want you to-”_

_But that was where Lily had made her fatal mistake. At the sound of Eden’s name, Kamilah’s face closed down and she lashed out with her daggers, cutting down Lily in one accurate strike. _

_And then she was finally alone in that cavernous chamber, covered in the ashes and blood of everyone she had once loved. She waited for the grief to hit, for the crippling anguish and shame to bring her to her knees. But just as the blood had dried on her face, any and all hints of emotions seemed to have withered away in her._

_Numbly, heartlessly, soullessly, Kamilah rose._

* * *

“After that, I hunted down every single member of the Order of Dawn. If they hadn’t cornered us, if Xenocrates hadn’t almost killed us, Eden would never have drunk from the Tree and become possessed by Rheya,” Kamilah continued matter-of-factly, looking perfectly composed. 

“_You _killed them?!” Rosella croaked in disbelief, staring at the woman she had thought she’d begun to know. It was common knowledge that Adrian Raines, Jax Matsuo, and Lily Spencer had all been casualties of the Great Battle against the First Vampire, but that their deaths had been brought about by Kamilah herself…

She’d always believed their deaths had played a role in Kamilah’s descent, had thought their deaths in addition to Eden’s had pushed Kamilah past her breaking point. But the truth she had longed so much to know… The truth was so much worse. 

Kamilah continued, ignoring her interruption, “But after I killed all of them, I still felt empty. It wasn’t nearly as gratifying as I’d expected it to be. And then I realised, the Order wasn’t really the one at fault.”

“It was vampirekind itself.”

And even in her exhaustion, even as she was reeling from the revelation of Kamilah’s massacre, Rosella picked up her head to look at her.

“What?” she uttered throatily.

“There is an Egyptian hieroglyph, Ankh. _It represents life, the intangible force that spreads throughout the world and creates living things… people, animals, all of it. That’s why all living things are tied together. They’re bound by this force._I knew ever since I was Turned that our existence was outside of Ankh. But I finally realised we are more than just an aberration, we are an abomination. _We corrupt Ankh. We threaten the balance_. We bring ruin upon every thing, every life we touch.”

“And so I knew I had to rid the world of our kind. To restore the natural balance of the world.”

“You’re crazy!” Rosella wanted to shout, but it came out as a hoarse cry instead, “Just because she died doesn’t give you the right to decide that vampires are evil. Why do you have the power to decide life and death?! Do you think she would have wanted that? Do you think she would have wanted you killing her friends and thousands of innocent souls in her name?”

In her bloodthirsty delirium, Rosella began to cackle maniacally, “I’m glad Eden’s dead if only because she doesn’t have to see this pathetic excuse of a life you’ve become!”

Fury erupted from Kamilah’s face, but she quickly contained it, pasting a disappointed smile in its place. 

“Oh Rosella, I had hoped for more from you.”

And then there was the sound of daggers being unsheathed, and Rosella knew no more.

* * *

OR

With a burst of speed and strength Rosella didn’t know she possessed, she grabbed the dagger, using the momentum to redirect it into Kamilah’s heart. There was a horrified gasp, and Rosella belatedly recognised it as the sound of her own gasp. She stared at her hands on the dagger, and suddenly realising what she’d done, Rosella made to drop it and fall back.

But Kamilah grabbed her hands, tightening their grip on the knife and driving it deeper into her chest.

She didn’t know why but for some reason, tears began to spill down Rosella’s cheeks, mirroring the blood that dripped down the weapon and down her hands. She shook her head furiously in denial. 

No, no, this wasn’t happening. 

Because even though this woman was responsible for the deaths of so many of her loved ones, even though she was still so obviously in love with a long-dead mortal, even though she had imprisoned her for weeks, if not longer, somewhere along the line, she had started to care for Kamilah.

It was almost ironic; Kamilah was the one dying from a dagger to her heart, but Rosella was the one with gasping, heaving sobs ripping out of her. 

There was no surprise on Kamilah’s face, only a beatific smile and she whispered, “Good girl.”

And then there were only ashes and Rosella was alone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I can’t stress how much I need to be studying smh. Well, this is the end of the insane Kamilah story and I hope you’ve enjoyed! 
> 
> The first ending was what I originally thought of as soon as I saw the prompt, but then I ended up writing the second ending and I couldn’t decide which one I liked better. You have an irredeemable Kamilah in both cases (because she’s killed so many people, including Adrian, Jax, Lily), but in the second one, you see her as more of a tragic figure, since she’s basically been waiting for someone to kill her and end her agony. That’s why she guides Rosella into killing her. 
> 
> (In Chapter 14, it was really nice to see how Kamilah grew and started to believe she was worthy of happiness, which made it even sadder to write this. But you know, you ask for insaneKamilah, that’s what you get.)
> 
> Also, a better writer would have conveyed it better but let me clarify: Rosella doesn’t fall for Kamilah. It’s not romance that she feels. It’s not not Stockholm Syndrome but in my opinion, Rosella has “grown up” as a vampire, knowing of Kamilah only as a legend and later as the person who killed her friends/family. She was always more curious than scared of Kamilah because she was supposed to be evil, but she also did a lot of good things as a Council Member after Gaius’s imprisonment. And now that she meets her, she’s not romantically falling for Kamilah. I think she feels drawn to Kamilah. She feels magnetism, a charismatic pull to Kamilah. It’s not romance. She has very complicated feelings for Kamilah and they all overwhelm her when she kills Kamilah (not to mention she’s also half-mad of thirst by this point).

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a tumblr prompt asking for an insane Kamilah. The story’s structured so that the main events are revealed in a series of (italicised) flashbacks told by Kamilah.
> 
> In case it’s not clear, Rosella is an OC, a fairly new/young vampire. The events of BB2 happened around ~500 years ago and Eden is the BB MC. You’ll be learning along with Rosella about what happened to cause Kamilah to become the infamous legend she now is.


End file.
